Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While there is certainly nothing wrong with the Deputy's comment, the annual budget is the outcome of the decisions made by the Cabinet in respect of providing services and running individual Departments for which Ministers have responsibility. As the Deputy is aware, the Health Service Executive submits its service plan to the Minister for Health who must sign off on it before it can be delivered. This can only happen when the Cabinet has signed off on the extent of moneys allocated to each individual Department and agency. It is not possible to give the Deputy a direct answer today because decisions have not yet been made about the budget. We have set out the parameters of it - out to €1.5 billion. Ministers are looking for far more than is available but we will not go down the same road we went down before.

This causes a complication if one has ten or 11 homes that are aged in building terms and where the facilities are not up to the standard determined by HIQA. Can they all be put together? Does one have the resources to do them all together and look after all the other things that apply also? In that sense, where many of these institutions or homes have come to light in this manner, one needs to have a strategy and plan to improve them and bring them up to standard or whatever else. If they do not meet the standard, they cannot remain open. The critical issue must be to give every person in all of those homes the best level of care, attention and dignity they can have in their circumstances. I would like to think that "shortly" means what the word is supposed to mean. The budget will determine the allocation of money to each Department and the priorities that apply afterwards, but if one has 11 or 12 of these homes to do now, one must have a method, strategy and plan to upgrade them and provide the facilities that are appropriate for elderly people in these circumstances. Many of them are in places they call home but the facilities they have are not up to standard by today's terms.

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